This invention relates to adjustable furniture, and more particularly to tables having an apparatus to secure tabletops at various heights.
Tables of various sizes and shapes are employed in diverse applications and arrangements. As society grows, office and living space becomes ever more expensive. Space is therefore at a premium, and room sizes diminish. In such cramped conditions, a single table is often called upon to serve many different functions. The chosen table must therefore be adjustable for many different applications and many different users.
Such a multi-purpose table should be vertically adjustable to accommodate these different users in a comfortable position, and to help users perform their tasks more efficiently. A telescopic adjustable height apparatus which possesses groove steps of different depths and a hand wheel fastener to secure the tabletop at the desired height is advantageous in that users of all mechanical abilities and strengths may thereby raise or lower the table top slowly and with ease.
Prior table height adjustment devices are generally effective for providing the desired adjustment, but these devices usually comprise a smooth, rather than stepped, inner groove which cannot control the speed of the drop when the tabletop is lowered. Prior apparatus are also not designed to help a weak user raise the tabletop. Especially when used in a hospital setting or with a handicapped user, these prior art devices have been annoyingly difficult to adjust properly, and are even hazardous should anything sensitive be located under the table if it drops suddenly. Most prior apparatus for raising a table top have also not provided pneumatic devices to slow and control the rate of tabletop ascent and descent. A need therefore exists for a safe telescopic adjustable height mechanism capable of controllably raising and lowering a tabletop and securely locking the table top in the desired position. The present invention addresses this need.